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Friday, November 26, 2010

Easy, delicious, and it smells great while cooking! What more could you want in a recipe- well maybe a better "recipe" than I am going to give you :) Just remember you can change it up and you really can't go wrong here. You'll need:PotatoesCarrotsOnionGarlic Polish Kielbasa or smoke sausage- 1 or 2 of those linksPeel the potatoes, onions, and carrots- the amount depends on your crowd. Chop the carrots and potatoes in bite size pieces. Place in bottom of 9 x 13 casserole dish. Cut the onions into wedges. They will cook apart get very tender and bigger pieces can be avoided by those onion phobic children and adults. Chop a clove or two of garlic and toss in or use the kind in a jar. Sprinkle the vegetables with salt and pepper. I use seasoned salt most of the time and also add a teaspoon of dried rosemary. Slice the sausage to the thickness that you like and toss on top of the veggies. Cover with foil and bake at 400 for about 45-50 minutes. Test to see if the potatoes and carrots and tender.Enjoy! You can use turkey sausage but I find you need to add olive oil or it sticks to the pan and lacks some flavor.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

What do you think matters most to your children? You driving them to lessons and practices, or is it the smile and hug you greet them with after school? If you guessed the latter, you are correct.

Sixteen years of teaching and giving the same assignment every Mother’s Day has led me to the exact same conclusion. You see, every Mother’s Day I would ask my students to give me advice on being a mother. They were to think about things their mother or guardian did for or with them that made them feel happy or loved. The classroom would go silent as the students wrote intensely for longer than they had ever written before. Often smiles would appear on their faces as they reflected on the happy experiences they were remembering. After reading their responses I would add to my list all the ideas they mentioned. Surprisingly, many of the responses were the same. Year after year, in every country I taught, and in every type of demographic, the students were saying the same things and had the same message: It’s the small things that their mothers did that meant the most and that they remembered.
Many moms today feel as if they are not good mothers unless they are racing around, shuttling their children from lessons, to practices and back to lessons again. I’ve had mothers tell me that they want to give their children every opportunity they did not have. While this thinking might bring the mother some comfort, it really does not do the same for their child who is potentially feeling overextended, stressed and tired.After speaking endlessly about this topic with my students, it became clear to me that children today are involved in too many activities and are in turn becoming less in touch with themselves and their families. In addition, my students told me they really wished for more time to “just play”. Of course many of them enjoy their extra curricular activities, but it is not necessary they said to be allowed to do everything. What they enjoyed most, and what made their hearts happiest was when their mothers did simple things for or with them.
Here is a list of the top ten things students around the world said they remembered and loved most about their mothers.

Come into my bedroom at night, tuck me in and sing me a song. Also tell me stories about when you were little.

Give me hugs and kisses and sit and talk with me privately.

Spend quality time just with me, not with my brothers and sisters around.

Give me nutritious food so I can grow up healthy.

At dinner talk about what we could do together on the weekend.

At night talk to me about about anything; love, school, family etc.

Let me play outside a lot.

Cuddle under a blanket and watch our favorite TV show together.

Discipline me. It makes me feel like you care.

Leave special messages in my desk or lunch bag.

Children are incredibly wise and tend to see the world more simply than we do. Perhaps it is time we start taking their advice. Maybe we would all feel a little less stressed and be satisfied with the fact that doing little things really is… good enough.

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